Don't put fetus ahead of women

I am responding to Judy and Tom Lickona’s letter Jan 27 that said without a “right to life” for the unborn, Barack Obama’s economic promise of “everyone getting a fair shot” cannot come to be.

First of all, I don’t quite see the connection between economic opportunity and the pro-life movement. The last time I checked, human fetuses lacked the capacity to read want ads or check their stock portfolios — at least until they begin watching “Sesame Street.”

Secondly, I don’t understand why a huge section of the population sees the rights of a being whose status as “alive” is debatable as more important than the rights of the women who carry them. You know, the women who breathe, speak, ingest and digest food, have opinions, pay taxes, abide by the law and lead lives. Remember them? Why don’t they matter as much as human embryos?

Sure, people deserve the right to life. The key word, I believe, is people. A fully-grown adult female who walks and talks fills the definition of “people” way before a fetus. Putting the fetus above the woman is offensive, misogynistic and an idea that should have ceased to be when women got the right to vote in 1920.

If you are anti-abortion, don’t have one. That’s your choice. Let all women have theirs.